Graphic novels are supposedly a new type of book. Putting a story into pictures with cartoon type dialogue boxes or balloons, however, is not new to me. I once had a collection of all but three “Classics Illustrated” titles, but that was a long time ago.

Graphic novels were originally extensions of comic books. Some actually were first printed that way. One of the best is the Sandman series, written by Neil Gaiman collaborating with various artists.

Gaiman has created another set of deities, though borrowing often from traditional myths. His pantheon includes Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction, Destiny and Death. You will find them all in “Endless Nights,” the last of the eleven-book series.

Gaiman's protagonist is The Sandman, Morpheus, the one who gives us Dreams and who, at the beginning of the series, has been imprisoned in reality for a long time. He has been stripped of his symbols of power, mask and jewel, and once he is freed through human error (of course), he must regain his old powers.

He journeys to Hell and wins back his mask when he confronts the legions of Lucifer with their age-old dream of Heaven. For without that dream, Hell would have no other reason to exist, so Gaiman says.

It is twists like this that appeal to Sandman readers, and the books are drawn in many styles. I particularly liked Gaiman's version of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” in the third book, “Dream County.” Morpheus puts on the play for the real Titania and Oberon since he has made a Faustian bargain with Shakespeare, giving Will the power to create “such things as dreams are made of.”

Many current graphic novels are oriented toward kids and are based on the mange comic books and anime films of Japan. The drawings are very stylized with angular features and pointed chins. The stories, as far as I can tell, are a combination of the Power Rangers, Jackie Chan, Akira Kurosawa and Miyamoto Musashi, a famous Japanese samurai.

There are scads of characters, all with different powers and angst, accompanied with a guiding spirit. If you can tell that I wasn't much impressed, you're right, but they are very popular with many kids. Look for the “Shaman King” series, available at local libraries, for a sample, and there is also a huge Web site.

I was more impressed with another series of graphic novels for kids called “Abadazad.” The author, J.M. Matteis, and artist, Mike Ploog, have consciously imitated “The Wizard of Oz” in creating a new world somewhere over there, but there are moments of great ingenuity.

We have a story within a story in Abadazad. Kate reads to her younger brother the books of Little Martha who had adventures in the City of Inconceivable, ruled by Queen Ija. Kate also keeps a diary which is part of the book we are holding.

Social commentary peeps out as Little Martha in the books Kate reads is blue-eyed and blonde. When Kate is translated to the real Abadazad, Little Martha is black. The beautiful Queen Ija is blue and has three eyes, enabling her to see better than most.

We meet a vast panoply of characters. The villain is the Lanky Man who has four arms and who kidnaps Kate's little brother. Helpers along the way are Auntie Nott, Master Wix, the Wax Boy, and the Waterlogged Warlock.

My main complaint about the series is that it is slow in developing. The diary entries are supposed to be modern uptakes but distract from the fantasy of Abadazad, the place. Each book is ten bucks, of which there are two and more on the way. However, if a young reader gets off on Abadazad, the series is no worse than the Babysitters Club or Tom Swift, Junior, books of the past.

There is one graphic novel that is superior to all mentioned so far. That is “Maus: A Survivor's Tale” by Art Spiegelman. Spiegleman has transformed the Holocaust into a graphic tale of mice and cats. You can figure which are Jews and which Nazis.

Spiegelman won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for this harrowing tale of what happened before, during and after World War II in Europe. The book is actually two stories, that of his father's account on how he and his wife escape from Poland to the US, surviving Auschwitz, and of his son's attempt, through these graphic novels, to reconcile his relationship with his aging father.

Using cartoons with mice and cats, “Maus” treats the story of the Holocaust as fantasy and describes “the unspeakable through the diminutive,” as the author says. I still have trouble reading of the concentration camps and the “Night and Fog” trains that took Jews and other “undesirables” to execution.

“Maus” emphasizes the brutality of the Holocaust and as a graphic novel captures Hannah Arendt's phrase perfectly when she described what happened under the Nazis as the “banality of evil.”

Ralph Mohr taught English and Latin at Marshfield High School for 31 years. Retired, he is currently teaching Latin through CyberSchool on the Internet. He welcomes comments regarding the column at rmohr1565@charter.net.